By Fred Pals
May 28 (Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europes largest oil producer, agreed to buy most of the assets of closely-held East Resources Inc. for $4.7 billion in cash, expanding its portfolio of U.S. unconventional gas deposits.
East Resources owns and operates more than 2,500 producing oil and gas wells in New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Colorado and is actively exploring drilling programs in Wyoming, according to its website. It has been operating in the Marcellus Shale Area for 25 years.
Companies from Indias Reliance Industries Ltd. to Japans Mitsui & Co. are spending billions of dollars on drilling to dislodge natural gas from shale — sedimentary rock composed of mud, quartz and calcite. Shell expects its share of gas in total output to rise to 52 percent in 2012.
Theyve seen others take material positions in U.S. gas, and this is one way they can also play a part in that business, said Jason Kenney, head of oil and gas research at ING Commercial Banking in Edinburgh.
The acquisition is the second-biggest oil and gas deal this year, after BP Plcs acquisition of deepwater assets from Devon Energy Corp. for $7 billion in March, according to Bloomberg data.
We are enhancing our world-wide upstream portfolio for profitable growth, through exploration and focused acquisitions, and through divestment of non-core positions, Chief Executive Officer Peter Voser said in a statement today.
Exxon Mobil Corp., the biggest U.S. oil company, agreed in December to buy XTO Energy Inc., the countrys largest natural gas producer, for $31 billion to gain control of shale-gas assets.
–Editors: Stephen Cunningham, Will Kennedy.
To contact the reporter on this story: Fred Pals in Amsterdam at [email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Will Kennedy at [email protected]
This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
MORE DETAILS:
A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
